Barry Peter Barnes (1937-2025) was a tireless promoter of the best in chess composition art for 70 years, since his first published problem in 1954. With his contemporaries Michael Lipton and John Rice, in the late 1950s and early 1960s he revolutionised the British two-mover, moving from the single phase fashion to modern multiphase contents. Their joint book “The Two-Move Chess Problem: Tradition and Development” (1966) was a glorious monument to their revolution, and a brilliant gift for future generations.
Barry’s open mind and readiness for novelties never changed, up to the last problems he composed, and his final award, completed quite recently for The Hopper. Whatever the state of his health or private obligations, he was always there to help chess composers and promote the growth of chess composition.
The late 1960s were full of rewards and new engagements for Barry. In 1966 he was invited by the FIDE PCCC President Comins Mansfield to act as the PCCC Secretary. He was later to fulfil a promise to Mansfield to publish his complete output. Barry became a long-lasting British Delegate, PCCC Vice-President, and an Honorary Member. In 1967, only 30 years old, he earned the titles of lnternational Master of the FIDE for Chess Composition and lnternational Judge of the FIDE for Chess Composition.
Barry made a great contribution to The Problemist, writing numerous articles including a number of amusing Sherlock Holmes stories. He edited the two-move originals from 1964 to 1997, helping generations of newcomers with their early steps in the genre. My time to learn from him started half a century ago, and never ended. His kind postcards and letters definitely shaped my love for the two-mover, and The Problemist became my favourite magazine. Later, aside from the magazines, I started receiving his new books, always with noble contents and gentle inscriptions.
His last publications were his “blue book” and the “red book”. Behind the self-ironical subtitle “BPB – COMPOSER – A SHADOW OF HIS FORMER SELF”, one finds all that made Barry an icon of chess composition throughout his life. These books are full of love for his friends and his family up to his great-grandchildren, with compositions and comments full of subtle humour, kindness and highly independent thinking.
My deepest condolences go to Barry’s dear wife Jean, to his large and so beloved family, and to all British chess problemists. We share the same, irreparable loss. Barry’s endless optimism; his work, problems and books, will live as a sparkling advertisement of how chess composition may be a noble art that shares joy and friendship around the world.
Barry’s publications:
The two move chess problem: Tradition and development (with Michael Lipton and John Rice) 1966
Pick of the best chess problems 1976
Comins Mansfield MBE: Chess problems of a Grandmaster 1976
White to play and mate in two 1991
A.R.Gooderson: An English Progressive 1996
Complete Mansfield (3 volumes) 1996-99
Barnes about chess problems 2001
Conquering Kings 2004
B.P.Barnes Collected chess problems 2018
The BCPS Centenary Review 1918-2018 (with Michael McDowell) 2020
